Hero, erasure poem by Karen Massey (Mythic Poetry Series)

HERO
by Karen Massey

Bard on a quest,
Quaint uncouth dreamer,
Vices and strange fists
Of beauty and grief;
Sweet, everlasting glad
Ward of the earth,
Searching

SOURCE: “The Frogs” by Archibald Lampman,1887.

SOURCE BOOK: Lampman’s Sonnets 1884-1899 (Borealis Press, 1976), page 21.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Karen Massey lives in Ottawa, Canada. Her work has been published online and in journals and anthologies in Canada and the US including Decalogue: Ten Ottawa Poets (Chaudiere Books) and Bukowski Erasure Poetry Anthology and May Poetry Anthology (both from Silver Birch Press). Her second chapbook, Strange Fits of Beauty & Light (above/ground press) launches in December.

Ghost Rally, poem by Liz Worth

GHOST RALLY 
by Liz Worth

Can you remember the details?
That other life,
the last parts alone,
underbreath laugh as
I lost my breakfast.

Here we are, wild
as a nerve slips up.
You birth colors,
red and blonde,
a ghost rally
to spend
twice as much
money on A.

We never came back
to revolutionize the world,
map out a plan of gray,
the book you were giving me.

Did you do those things,
looking for something else?
You’re something strange,
working to know the morning.

SOURCE: “Ghost Rally” by Liz Worth is based on page 418 of a: A Novel by Andy Warhol

IMAGE: “A Set of Six Self-Portraits” by Andy Warhol, oil and silkscreen ink on canvas (1967).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Liz Worth has created over 400 poems from Andy Warhol‘s book a: A Novel — one from each page in the book — spending over a year on the project, which she completed on May 31, 2014. Check it out at rewritingwarhol.  Worth is the author of  PostApoc (2013), a novel available at Amazon.com.  Her other books include Amphetamine Heart and Treat Me Like Dirt: An Oral History of Punk in Toronto and Beyond. She lives in Toronto. Find her at lizworth.com.

Author photo by Don Pyle. 

Body Doubles, erasure poem by Wm. Todd King (Half New Year Poetry Series)

BODY DOUBLES
by Wm. Todd King

The lively ones
made age-old stories come to adolescence
as they took their licks with an iron hot hand,
each mistake and threat
a screwed up handful
of wrinkled ills tucked in with tape,
a throwing of wonder
in a land full of strange creatures
that picked up the annoying habit
of rolling over in half-naked thought.

SOURCE: “Body Doubles” by Wm. Todd King is based on page 63 of  I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action (Ballantine, 1998).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Wm. Todd King is a Poet and Regulatory Compliance Supervisor living in Kentucky. He is the recent finalist in the Found Poetry Review’s Dog Ear Poetry Contest, and a participant in 2013’s Pulitzer Remix project. His works have appeared in STILL, the Silver Birch Press NOIR Erasure Poetry Anthology, Life’s Vivid Creations, and Found Poetry Review.

Though a Little Out of Fashion, poem by Deborah Herman (Half New Year Poetry Series)

THOUGH A LITTLE OUT OF FASHION
by Deborah Herman

Though a little out of fashion,
There is much care and valor in the morning

I think we have no great cause to desire
the approach of day.

We see the beginning of the day, but I think we shall
never see the end of it.

A friend
Under you

A good and kind gentleman.
I pray, think of our estate
as men wracked upon a sand,
that look to be washed off the next tide.

I speak to you, but a man,
as I am.

The violet smells; the element shows;
all his senses have human conditions.

Laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man;
his affections are higher mounted,
when they stoop, they stoop with the wing.

Therefore, his fears relish in reason.

He, by showing it, should dishearten.

He may show outward courage;
but I believe, as cold a night as he could wish.

AUTHOR’S NOTE:. I have chosen for my Half New Year Poetry submission page 72 [for July 2nd, Half New Year] of Henry V. I have taken the dialogue between men out of context — they are speaking of rumours they have heard about what kind of man the king may be, without knowing he is present. I have instead turned the prose into a love poem, rather than a dialogue that takes place on the eve of war. The play as a whole is about sexual conquest — Henry must “woo” Catherine of France before forcefully taking over the country to make his leadership (and his offspring) legitimate. The play is also rife with “homosocial” male companionship: the “band of brothers” speech, and even the Harfleur speech, when Henry threatens that his army will kill all the babies and rape all of the girls of the city. So I have taken liberties with page 72 of the play and have tried to make it into something beautiful (and sexually ambiguous).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Deborah Herman is an emerging poet with previous publications in Existere, Rhythm, Transverse, and Vallum. Her poem, “Endurance,” will be published in the upcoming water-themed issue of the Motif Anthology (Vol. 4).

Hemaris diffinis, erasure poem by Karen Massey (May Poetry Series)

Hemaris diffinis
by Karen Massey 

Her name is little creature is
“Hummingbird Moth”
O hover in a flower
and show off handsome colours
Friend crept up
for a better look
and felt a deep sense of
delight
O moth of see-through wings
and daytime habits. Caterpillars
feed on variety. Adults
are on the wing in May.
 
O winged sphinx.
O Snowberry Clearwing.

SOURCE: “Hemaris diffinis” by Karen Massey is based on page 50 of Bugs of Ontario by John Acorn, Illustrations by Ian Sheldon (Lone Pine Publishing, 2003).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Karen Massey writes in Ottawa, Canada. She has an MA, has published one chapbook, and her work has won local and regional prizes and appeared in a range of literary journals and anthologies. Recent online publication includes Bywords.ca, and one of her poems was featured on the Chaudiere Press blog during National Poetry Month 2014.

one 1, Beat Erasure Poem by Thomas R. Thomas

one 1
by Thomas R. Thomas

I met
my life
my life
on the road
to Los Angeles

I was
sweetly
intellectual

Then
for the first time
there was
Marylou

I
had arrived

SOURCE: “one 1*” is based on the first page of Chapter 1o in the novel On the Road by Jack Kerouac.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Thomas R. Thomas was born in Los Angeles and grew up in the San Gabriel Valley west of LA. Currently, he lives in Long Beach, California. For his day job, he is a software QA Analyst. He volunteers for Tebot Bach, a community poetry organization, in Huntington Beach. Thomas has been published in Don’t Blame the Ugly Mug: 10 Years of 2 Idiots Peddling Poetry, Creepy Gnome, Carnival, Pipe Dream, Bank Heavy Press, Conceit Magazine, Electric Windmill & Marco Polo, and the Silver Birch Press Summer Anthology. In November 2012, Carnival released his eChapbook, Scorpio, and Washing Machine Press released a chapbooklette called Tanka. In October 2013, World Parade Books published a book of his poetry, Five Lines. Visit the author’s website at thomasrthomas.org.

the crow, Noir Erasure Poem by james w. moore

the crow
by james w. moore

a crow will
Fall

a crow
a crow
that’s going to fall

the eyes    the flicker

crazy
a thing in my life
crazy
a thing in your life

it’s
O.K.
O.K.
O.K.

I

I

I

would still
light the fire

SOURCE NOTE:  “the crow” by james w. moore is based on a page from Chapter 2 in Double Indemnity by James M. Cain.

SOURCE: “the crow” by james w. moore and work by over 40 other poets appears in the Silver Birch Press NOIR Erasure Poetry Anthology (December 2013) — a 122-page collection of erasure poems based on the writings of a range of noir authors, including James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Patricia Highsmith, Walter Mosley, Robert B. Parker, and Cornell Woolrich – available at Amazon.com.

Praise for I am the Maker of all sweetened possum, found poetry by james w. moore

On March 10, 2014, Silver Birch Press released I am the Maker of all sweetened possum: found poetry in Scarlet Sister Mary by james w. moore. Here’s what editors and poets are saying about the full-color, 64-page collection:

“moore enters a dialogue with Peterkin’s text by excising, erasing, and in one case literally stitching words together to create poems whose subjects are as creative and diverse as the methods he employs. moore’s visually rich and lyrically sophisticated poems traverse the traditional boundaries of found poetry and are a significant contribution to the genre.” Jenni B. Baker, Found Poetry Review editor-in-chief 

“moore imagines words in a setting beyond the blank page and gives them a visual context to communicate their truths. The book begins with a warm and friendly commentary, as if you and he are engaged in a conversation about his process. As the book evolves, so does the complexity and creativity of setting for moore’s remix of Peterkin’s words, until we reach the final exultant ‘Heaven.'” Margo Roby, poet

“Within within these pages we are treated to an exotic cross-media journey through the modified pages of Julia Peterkin’s original text. It is rare, if not unique to find such painstaking craft and depth of creative imagination so adeptly and seamlessly married with found poetry as in Scarlet Sister.” Winston Plowes, poet

“moore set out to write poems that sounded like the kind he would write, even while using Julia Peterkin’s words. The poems achieve this intent as a collection that reads neither as a criticism of the original text, nor as a disconnected effort. We get to glimpse Moore’s ‘universe’ through his particular exploration of found poetry, and it is a distinct pleasure.” Beth Ayer, Senior Poetry Editor, Found Poetry Review

Find I am the Maker of all sweetened possum by james w. moore at Amazon.com.

A dream maybe., found poem by james w. moore

A dream maybe.
by james w. moore

She sat close to
the grateful warmth
for
She
on the
folded arms
dozed
She   her eyes
the dim light
did
hear a
a
a
Sound
a baby’s voice.

A dream maybe.

back to her
foolish
dreams
turned in her
too and she
No
she heard
No
What could
it be?

SOURCE: “A dream maybe.” appears in I am the Maker of all sweetened possum: found poetry in Sister Scarlet Mary by james w. moore (Silver Birch Press, 2014), available at Amazon.com.

New SBP Release: I am the Maker of all sweetened possum, found poetry by james w. moore

Silver Birch Press is pleased to announce the March 10, 2014 release of I am the Maker of all sweetened possum: found poetry in Scarlet Sister Mary by james w. moore.

BOOK DESCRIPTION: 

I Am the Maker of all sweetened possum is the strangely-capitalized, full-color collection of found poetry by james w. moore. Working from the text of Julia Peterkin’s Scarlet Sister Mary, moore has created visually striking poems that acknowledge their source while making new worlds for Peterkin’s words.

Found poetry is a method of creating poems from already existing work; moore’s found poetry acknowledges its source material by creating the poem directly out of a page of text. His work strives to stand out in words and in the visual remaining on the page. Using exacto knives, whiteout, markers, paint, and even cross-stitch, moore’s work has a homemade feel that reflects the source text. In the introduction, he says, “there’s a handmade quality to Scarlet Sister Mary. seemingly every interaction happens while someone is making food, or mending garments, or picking crops. i strove to reflect that tactile feeling in my work. i wanted each piece to feel like you can see the marks left behind.”

james w. moore took part in Found Poetry Review‘s 2013 National Poetry Month initiative — The Pulitzer Remix — where 85 poets each selected a Pulitzer prize winning work of fiction and created a poem for each day of the month. This collection rounds up poems that were created as part of the Pulitzer Remix.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: james w. moore is a writer of poetry, plays, and short stories. his poetry has appeared in the Found Poetry Review, the Silver Birch Press Noir Erasure Poetry Anthology, the Houston Chronicle and on Vermont Edition. five of his full-length plays have received world premieres, including original works such as cart (which American Theatre magazine called “a wonderfully surreal comedy”), and adaptations of Robin Hood and Rapunzel for the Northwest Children’s Theater. he was twice awarded residencies at Caldera Arts, and his one act play Ubu’s Last Krapp was featured as part of the End of the Pavement series. his work has been performed in Chicago (SOLO Festival), Seattle (On the Boards), Portland (Oregon—PICA’s TBA Festival and JAW), and in Burlington, Vermont. he currently lives and creates in Winooski, Vermont. For more about james, visit the author’s blog.

BOOK DETAILS: 64 pages, full color (5.5 x 8.5″)

AVAILABLE: Amazon.com